Detection of stress corrosion cracking of high-strength steel used in prestressed concrete structures by acoustic emission technique

The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of high-strength steel used in prestressed concrete structures was studied by acoustic emission technique (AE). A simulated concrete pore (SCP) solution at high-alkaline (pH ≈ 12) contaminated by sulphate, chloride, and thiocyanate ions was used. The evolution of the acoustic activity recorded during the tests shows the presence of several stages related respectively to cracks initiation due to the local corrosion imposed by corrosives species, cracks propagation and steel failure. Microscopic examinations pointed out that the wires exhibited a brittle fracture mode. The cracking was found to propagate in the transgranular mode. The role of corrosives species and hydrogen in the rupture mechanism of high-strength steel was also investigated. This study shows promising results for an potential use in situ of AE for real-time health monitoring of eutectoid steel cables used in prestressed concrete structures.     

Stereoselective Synthesis of Sialyl Lewisa Antigen and the Effective Anticancer Activity of Its Bacteriophage Qβ Conjugate as an Anticancer Vaccine

Sialyl Lewis^a (sLe^a), also known as cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), is a tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen. The overexpression of sLe^a on the surface of a variety of cancer cells makes it an attractive target for anticancer immunotherapy. However, sLe^a-based anticancer vaccines have been under-explored. To develop a new vaccine, efficient stereoselective synthesis of sLe^a with an amine-bearing linker was achieved, which was subsequently conjugated with a powerful carrier bacteriophage, Qβ. Mouse immunization with the Qβ-sLe^a conjugate generated strong and long-lasting anti-sLe^a IgG antibody responses, which were superior to those induced by the corresponding conjugate of sLe^a with the benchmark carrier keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Antibodies elicited by Qβ-sLe^a were highly selective toward the sLe^a structure, could bind strongly with sLe^a-expressing cancer cells and human pancreatic cancer tissues, and kill tumor cells through complement-mediated cytotoxicity. Furthermore, vaccination with Qβ-sLe^a significantly reduced tumor development in a metastatic cancer model in mice, demonstrating tumor protection for the first time by a sLe^a-based vaccine, thus highlighting the significant potential of sLe^a as a promising cancer antigen.     

Synthesis of a Systematic 64-Membered Heparan Sulfate Tetrasaccharide Library

Heparan sulfate (HS) has multifaceted biological activities. To date, no libraries of HS oligosaccharides bearing systematically varied sulfation structures are available owing to the challenges in synthesizing a large number of HS oligosaccharides. To overcome the obstacles and expedite the synthesis, a divergent approach was designed, where 64 HS tetrasaccharides covering all possible structures of 2-O-, 6-O- and N-sulfation with the glucosamine-glucuronic acid-glucosamine-iduronic acid backbone were successfully produced from a single strategically protected tetrasaccharide intermediate. This extensive library helped identify the structural requirements for HS sequences to have strong fibroblast growth factor-2 binding but a weak affinity for platelet factor-4. Such a strategy to separate out these two interactions could lead to new HS-based potential therapeutics without the dangerous adverse effect of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.     

Structure of Polycrystalline Cu Films as Solar Selective Coatings

Copper thin films (5–150 nm) were prepared by vacuum deposition with different rates (0.7, 1.5 and 3 nm/s). The position, intensity and profile of X-ray diffraction lines were analysed to study the phases, the crystallographic preferred orientation as well as the residual strain and crystallite size. The fcc polycrystalline Cu phase was revealed and no oxide phases were identified. The films were highly oriented with 〈111〉 fiber texture. The ratio of P₁₁₁/P₂₀₀ increased with the film thickness. Thus, in case of amorphous substrate, the type of the crystallographic texture of a film depends mainly on the structure of the deposited material. The crystallite size increases while the residual strain decreases, as the film thickness or the deposition rate is increased. The crystallite size was very small compared with the film thickness. The effect of deposition rate was pronounced specially from 0.7 to 1.5 nm/s.     

Back Cover: Manipulating Intermetallic Charge Transfer for Switchable External Stimulus-Enhanced Water Oxidation Electrocatalysis (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44/2023)

Electrocatalytic processes involving the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) present a kinetic bottleneck due to the existence of linear-scaling relationships, which bind the energies of the different intermediates in the mechanism limiting optimization. Here, we offer a way to break these scaling relationships and enhance the electrocatalytic activity of a Co−Fe Prussian blue modified electrode in OER by applying external stimuli. Improvements of ≈11 % and ≈57 % were achieved under magnetic field (0.2 T) and light irradiation (100 mW cm⁻²), respectively, when working at fixed overpotential, η=0.6 V at pH 7. The observed enhancements strongly tie in with the intermetallic charge transfer (IMCT) intensity between Fe and Co sites. Density Functional Theory simulations suggest that tuning the IMCT can lead to a change of the OER mechanism to an external stimuli-sensitive spin crossover-based pathway, which opens the way for switchable electrocatalytic devices.